But before you embark on your Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, you’ll need to nail a reasonably priced flight. At time of writing, Air Transat’s direct Toronto to Charles de Gaulle mid-April service was around $633 return (including taxes)—but seats were filling up fast. Other options from www.expedia.ca and www.travelocity.ca include direct Delta, Air France and Air Canada flights for around $900 return (including taxes), with one-stop services up to $100 less.

Sign-up for Transat’s e-newsletter for last-minute deals — sometimes up to $200 cheaper — or add Paris as a good-value side trip from another Euro capital: EasyJet jaunts from London Luton are around $125 return. Alternatively, avoid the airports with a two-hour Eurostar train trip from London St. Pancras to Gare du Nord. Return fares are from $200, with best prices for early booking.

Next, you’ll need a Parisian pad. Reserving ahead is essential for even the most modest Paris pensions, but rather than blowing your escargot budget on a humdrum sleepover, consider booking a furnished apartment via services like Paris Attitude or the agencies listed on the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau website (See “Top value sleepovers” at the bottom of the page). Typically from around $800 per week, you’ll feel like part of the neighbourhood … and save a bundle on dining out.

Alternatively, small hotels stud the city like a fruit-packed pain aux raisins. Recommendations include the friendly New Orient Hôtel (from $95) and the swish boutique Le Fabe Hôtel (from $150). Euro budget chain Ibis has several Paris properties from around $135 — their two city centre locations are recommended. Hôtel Eldorado (from $100) is a shabby-chic favourite near Montmartre.

This charming, café-lined neighbourhood is a tourist magnet but don’t spend all your time here. Compact Paris is eminently walkable, with the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and Arc de Triomphe et al a short stroll or metro hop away. With a Paris Visite Metro Pass (from $17.50) you can surf the sights in comfort. But if you’re not a map-reader, consider booking a free volunteer guide to show you around.

Save even more with a little local savvy. On the first Sunday of every month, national museums like the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay provide free entry. And with city-run attractions like Maison de Victor Hugo always free, you might not even need the handy Paris Museum Pass (from $46). Finally, if you’re craving a theatrical fix, hit the Kiosque Théâtre near Montparnasse-Bienvenüe metro station for reduced tickets to shows around the city.

Parisians treat dining-out as a raison d’être but watch out: there are plenty of tourist traps seemingly keen to disappoint. As breakfast is often an espresso and pastries afterthought and dinner can be long and overblown, lunch is the meal to focus on here. Plat du jour or two-course formule menus are often a great midday value, providing bistro meals for $15 to $30, with table wine that’s often cheaper than Perrier. Service charges are added automatically, so don’t double tip.

My favourites include the pink-painted La Maison Rose, in a surprisingly quiet corner of Montmartre, and Restaurant Polidor, a classic bistro where Hemingway once mused. For looks, wood-lined Chartier is also popular, while branches of Chez Papa specialize in well-priced regional dishes like magret de canard. But if you’re really craving a taste of France, hit a market like Marché Richard-Lenoir for picnic-inspiring cheese, charcuterie and mouthwatering breads. Take your time and treat the market like a leisurely, strollable buffet. It’s the perfect way to immerse yourself in Parisian joie de vivre.

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A tailored look for $75
Normally, you would expect to pay $170 or more for a custom-tailored dress shirt. But that’s just for the first one. Once you get your measurements, you can order shirts by neck size and sleeve length on sites like JustWhiteShirts.com, where prices start at $75 per shirt, or ThePerfectShirt.ca, where prices start at $120.

Faux savings
You may have heard about big savings at sample sales. But Jane Juzda of Lou Lou magazine says it can be hard to find your size and you’re usually stuck with last year’s styles. There’s a better way to save: Get on the email list of your favourite retailer and chat up the salespeople to become part of the “in crowd.” Chains such as Banana Republic, BCBG, and Anthropologie often schedule VIP sales — open only to “favourite” customers — where you can save up to 60% off.

Buy goods out of season
Shopping has its seasons and if you know when to buy you can save big. For instance, most furniture stores get new merchandise in February and August, so they’re looking to clear out old stock at discount prices. Similarly if you’re in the market for a boat, buy early in the new year and you can get last year’s model for $5,000 off. This calendar shows the best times to buy for the maximum discount.

Upscale salon service, 50% off
Want the exclusive service and perks of a high-end salon at half the cost? Consider hair institutes, which double as training schools for stylists. A wash, cut and blow dry that would cost you $100 or more at a high-end salon costs as little as $32 at the Aveda Institute. Yes, your stylist will be a student, but he’ll be under the watchful eye of experienced hair stylists, who double as trainers. Make sure you’re not in a hurry though: Appointments can last two hours, even longer for colouring.

Gourmet dining for less
Saving money doesn’t always mean denying yourself the finer things in life. Here are five ways to get value out of even the finest dining experience:
• Save 30% to 50% off the bill by booking for lunch, not dinner.
• Try a newly-appointed three-star restaurant. The prices won’t yet reflect the upgrade.
• Avoid the most expensive dish on the menu — it’s there just to make everything else seem like a good deal in comparison.
• Get off the beaten track. Highly-rated restaurants in cities tend to be more expensive than their brethren in the countryside.
• If you want fine wine, go local. You’re more likely to get a superior bottle at a reasonable price.

Less junk, more luxury
Do you dream of owning a Mercedes but don’t know how you’ll scrape together the sticker price? Then curb your impulses.

According to researchers from Cornell University, a family earning $100,000 can cut its discretionary spending by 30% by resisting impulse buys, and save an extra $5,700 per year. Follow these tips if you want less clutter in the basement and more money for the finer things in life:
• Make a list before you go shopping. Research shows that if you have a list and you mentally tally up the cost of your total purchases as you’re shopping, it helps you to stick to your budget.
• Don’t touch. Researchers at Kaunas University of Technology found that people who examine merchandise are 67% more likely to buy it.
• Set a time limit. The shorter your trip, the less you’ll buy. Sometimes it really is that simple.

A $900 saving proposal
Would-be spouses can spend $2,500 on a half-carat engagement ring (depending on the grade). But smart shoppers can get more bling for their buck. At Costco.ca you can find a good selection of jewelry, including engagement and wedding rings.

A one-carat diamond engagement ring at Costco is only $6,200 — that’s $900 cheaper than at leading national jewelry chains — and yes, the quality of the diamonds is often just as high.

Read the rest of the series here:

Cut your work related expenses
Ten ways to trim your household spending
Six ways to save a bundle on your next getaway
Luxury goods for less
Save money on kids’ expenses
Slash your food costs now
Save $750 a month

Get 50% off diapers
Just one year of disposable diapers can cost as much as $1,000, but you can slash that expense by 20% to 50% if you borrow some techniques used by “extreme couponers.” Candace Anderson of FrugalMom.net says the best strategy is to find two-for-one coupons on flyers and online coupon sites (flyerland.ca and smartcanucks.ca are good bets). Then wait until that brand goes on sale in your local store. That way, you not only get a discount off the usual price, you get two packs for the price of one.

Another tip: You can also get on the mailing lists of the major manufacturers via their websites and they will send you coupons.

Help your student save on textbooks
University students — and their parents — are often shocked to find that in addition to paying soaring tuition fees, they have to shell out another $1,000 or so for books. You can save 25% by hitting up the university’s book store early and scouring for used books. Another option is BigMama.ca, a site where Canadian students can “rent” a textbook for a semester, saving up to 75%.

$7200
You can get up to $7,200 in free money from the government to help pay for your child’s university or college education. The Canada Education Savings Grant will contribute up to $200 for the first $500 you save in an RESP each year, and up to $400 on the next $2,000 saved, depending on your income.

They look cute, but watch out
Watch out for kiddie-sized snak paks and other adorable food products marketed to children. They look cute as a button, but usually all the manufacturer is doing is putting adult food in tiny packages and selling it at an inflated price. “You can save so much money by just portioning the food out yourself,” says personal finance blogger Kerry Taylor. “Instead of buying a package with small pieces of cheese and crackers, buy crackers and slice the cheese yourself. Boom — you have an instant snack.”

Just say ‘no’
Your kids may be constantly demanding the latest Nintendo DS systems and Harry Potter Lego sets, but studies show that experiential purchases, such as family vacations or guided hikes, provide more happiness. If you have a limited budget for gifts, you should focus on memorable activities that the family can do together.

Save on sports
Want to save on gear for your kids? Ask the team organizer if any parents from previous seasons have donated old equipment or might be willing to sell it. Also check out used sporting equipment stores. (But always buy helmets and masks new.)

Let the government chip in
Make sure you’re taking full advantage of all the tax credits and government benefits that are available for families.

Canada Child Tax Benefit
This is a tax-free monthly payment made to eligible families to help them with the cost of raising children under age 18.

Universal Child Care Benefit
This payment of $100 per month per child is available for each child under the age of six, regardless of the family’s income. If you’re receiving the Canada Child Tax Benefit and you’re eligible for UCCB, you’ll get it automatically. You can also apply through the Canada Revenue Agency.

Children’s Fitness Tax Credit
Parents can claim up to $500 per child towards the cost of registering their sons or daughters in a prescribed program of physical activity.

Read the rest of the series here:

Cut your work related expenses
Ten ways to trim your household spending
Six ways to save a bundle on your next getaway
Luxury goods for less
Save money on kids’ expenses
Slash your food costs now
Save $750 a month

Save $450
Your family could save $450 a month by switching from a premium retailer like Whole Foods to a discount retailer like No Frills. If you currently shop at a midrange supermarket like Loblaws, switching could still save you about $175 a month.

Presliced produce vs. whole
Fruits and veggies are increasingly being sold pre-sliced in fancy packages. It’s often just a way for your grocer to charge more money for less food:
• A plastic container of cut-up cantaloupe chunks costs $2.99 for one serving. A whole cantaloupe with three times the amount of fruit costs the same.
• A bag of ready-to-go salad greens will typically cost you around $3.99, compared with $2.49 for a head of lettuce.
• A package of seven baby cucumbers costs $3.99 but one English cucumber weighing almost as much costs just $1.79.

Be choosy about organics
Not all organic produce is equal, says Marion Nestle, a professor specializing in food studies at New York University. You only need to go organic for the foods that tend to contain the most contaminants. With celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, and blueberries, it’s worth paying extra for organic. But you can skip organics—which typically cost 25% more—when it comes to corn, avocados or mangoes, which have peels or husks that block chemicals.

Beware of bulk
Sure you can save by buying in bulk, but that strategy can backfire. “Ten litres of ketchup is not a deal if you don’t use it,” says Kerry Taylor. A study by Brian Wansink, a researcher who studies eating behaviour, showed that 12% of the groceries we buy go to waste. He advises shoppers to buy long-lasting items that can be substituted easily in other recipes—for example, if a recipe calls for either canned corn or okra, buy the corn.

Get your groceries for free
When you go to the supermarket, keep an eye on your groceries as they’re being scanned at the checkout. If the price comes up wrong, you can often get the item for free. Most major supermarket chains — and other retailers such as Shoppers Drug Mart, Wal-Mart and Best Buy — have signed on to the Retail Council of Canada’s scanner accuracy policy (you can see a full list of participating retailers at www.retailcouncil.org).

If the correct price of the mis-priced item is less than $10, you get the item for free. If it’s more than $10, you get $10 off. “When I see an item come up with the wrong price, I just say to the cashier ‘I think that mis-scanned,’ ” says financial author Kerry Taylor. “I’ve actually scored a lot of free groceries that way.”

Get half off your dining and entertainment
Sites such as Groupon.com now offer eye-popping deals like “pay $15 for $40 worth of food and drinks” at a nice Italian restaurant, or “pay $10 for $20 of chocolates from Laura Secord.” The deal of the day is mailed out to subscribers, and if enough people sign up, you can print out a voucher and bring it to the business to redeem it. Now there are also deal site aggregators, such as DealRadar.com, which give you a round up of all the deals available from various businesses in your area in one email. The only catch? You need to be careful that these sites don’t encourage you to spend more nights on the town then you budgeted for.

Skip the cookie aisle
Shoppers spent almost twice as much of their discretionary spending money when they mindlessly went down every aisle of a grocery store, rather than only visiting the aisles with the food they needed, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh and Baylor University. So ask yourself if there’s really anything you need in the cookie aisle, instead of just pushing your cart forward. You’ll eat healthier too.

Spice up your kitchen
You can save big by buying no-name spices from Superstore and No Frills, or bulk spices from Bulk Barn. A 10-gram jar of McCormick’s basil is $4.49 at the supermarket, more than 18 times the price per unit as a generic bag of No Name basil.

A jumbo illusion
Most shoppers assume they’ll save money by buying the jumbo size when it comes to cereal, juice, paper towels and other items. But look closely — sometimes the retailer is just trying to get you to buy more at the same price. “If something looks like it’s on sale, make sure you look at the price per unit,” says Jeffrey Schwartz, executive director of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services of Canada. It’s not uncommon to see a staple such as toothpaste actually selling for less per millilitre in a small tube than in a larger one.

Be your own chef
If you love fine dining, channel your inner foodie towards your own kitchen. A cooking class can inspire you to do own meal planning and at-home entertaining. One-off classes at local cooking schools are $70 to $125, while an 11-week course through your local board of education’s continuing education program costs just $300. You’ll quickly recoup the cost by eating out less and buying fewer pricey frozen entrees for dinner.

Read the rest of the series here:

Cut your work related expenses
Ten ways to trim your household spending
Six ways to save a bundle on your next getaway
Luxury goods for less
Save money on kids’ expenses
Slash your food costs now
Save $750 a month

Save on your home insurance
Most home insurance policies offer a standard $500 deductible, which is the amount you pay if you make a claim. But if you raise your deductible to $1,000, you can save $200 or more a year on premiums. As an added bonus, your rate is less likely to rise. That’s because if you have a higher deductible, your insurance company figures you’re less likely to make frivolous claims.

Be careful who you marry!
Okay, this is going to sound Cold and calculating, but you really need to think twice about who you marry. Nothing will ruin your finances faster than a nasty divorce, and it’s more common than you think: a full 38% of married couples divorce before their 30th wedding anniversary.

Marrying someone who is financially incompatible can lead to a slew of problems. Just ask Ted, a classic saver who married an unapologetic spender. “I knew it was going to end in disaster, but I did it anyway.” Four years later his soon-to-be-ex-wife backed a truck up to the house and cleaned him out while he was at work. It took another four years and close to $50,000 for Ted to sort out the alimony.

$510
If you’re looking for massive monthly savings, consider replacing your second car with a car-sharing service such as Zipcar or Autoshare. According to the CAA, your car costs you at least $830 a month, including maintenance and insurance, while a car-sharing service costs just $320.

A $200 discount in 15 minutes
Shopping commandment: always negotiate the price. If you don’t like the idea of haggling in person, do what our editor did and haggle online, from the comfort of your home.

After finding the perfect Italian dining room table on the manufacturer’s website, he comparison-shopped among local furniture stores to find the best price. He then emailed each store asking for a $200 discount if he bought the table with four matching chairs. The very first store immediately agreed. You can then just print off the email and drive down to the store to present it, like a custom coupon. “Big-ticket items, particularly furniture, should always be negotiated,” says Kristina Matisic, co-host of TV series The Shopping Bags.

According to a 2007 Consumer Reports study, 90% of those who try to haggle end up succeeding — scoring an average discount of $50.

Save $110 a month on daycare
According to the Today’s Parent Child Care Cost survey, Canadian parents pay an average of $33.80 per day for toddler daycare. Here’s a surprising way to spend less: Send your child to a private nursery school instead. Believe it or not, the nationally administered Montessori program provides six hours of toddler care for only $28.14 per day. You get the benefit of a structured learning environment, and you’ll save about $110 a month to boot.

Buy milk, get a free camera!
One smart shopper managed to rack up an amazing 145,000 points on her Shopper’s Drug Mart Optimum loyalty card. She purchased everyday items like milk at the drugstore, while taking advantage of 20x events — sale days that earn you 20 points on every $1 you spend. Within a year, she was able to redeem her points for an MP3 player (worth $30), a camera (on sale for $70) and a Wii system (on sale at $150).

Faux savings
Does it pay to be a member? Many smart shoppers are huge fans of Costco, and we have to admit, the $55 regular membership can pay for itself quickly. Especially if you buy big-ticket items like TVs and appliances. But is it worth paying $100 a year for the Executive Costco membership? Probably not.

The upgraded membership gives you 2% back on your purchases, but you’ll have to spend at least $5,000 a year to break even. If you’re not careful, you might start buying stuff you don’t need, just to justify the membership.

Where you live affects how you spend
According to professor Michael Hogg of California’s Claremont Graduate University, we learn our consumption habits from our social reference group of friends, family and neighbours. So, if you live in an area where everyone drives a BMW, then you’re more likely to want a BMW. If you’re not careful, your desire to reach this “consumptive norm” can have a devastating impact on your bank account.

Keep this in mind when you’re choosing a neighbourhood to live in and friends to hang out with. If everyone around you has a higher disposable income, you’ll always be struggling to keep up. Employing proven saving methods, such as savings jars, can help. But if you’re a chronic overspender, you may have to resort to drastic measures — like moving.

Rent tools for one-time jobs
Building a fence? You could fork out more than $1,400 for tools, including $900 for a power auger to dig the fence post holes. Rent the tools instead, and you’ll save $1,200 on that job alone.

Unplug vampire electronics
TVs and computers in ‘sleep’ mode can suck up to $20 a month in wasted electricity. Plug them into a power bar and turn it off at night for easy savings.

Read the rest of the series here:

Cut your work related expenses
Ten ways to trim your household spending
Six ways to save a bundle on your next getaway
Luxury goods for less
Save money on kids’ expenses
Slash your food costs now
Save $750 a month

If you switch to a lower-cost fund, such as Mawer Canadian Balanced Retirement Savings Fund, McLean Budden Balanced Growth Fund, or Phillips, Hager & North Monthly Income Fund, that fee could drop to as low as 1%. On a $100,000 portfolio, given equivalent performance of the underlying investments, you could save as much as $125 in fees a month, which adds up to $1,500 each year.

Save even more…
If you want to cut your fees even further, consider the TD e-series funds (only available through TD Waterhouse or special TD e-series accounts). These index mutual funds are designed to track major market indexes rather than beat them, so you’re not paying for expensive fund managers or high trading costs. As a result, these funds have much lower fees ranging from 0.31% to 0.50%. ING Direct’s Streetwise Funds are also a good deal, with fees of 1.07%.

And even more…
Once you have $50,000 or more to invest, it may make sense to open a brokerage account and buy a balanced portfolio of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which trade like stocks but track major indexes instead of trying to beat the markets. Our standard Global Couch Potato strategy has fees of just 0.37%.

Why loan your money for free?
Getting a tax refund feels great, but what it really means is that you were taxed more than you should have been to begin with. You’ll save in the long run if you calculate how much you plan to contribute to your RRSPs in a given year in advance, then tell your employer’s human resources department, so you can fill out a form to reduce the taxes you pay up front. Otherwise, you’re essentially giving the government a free loan. If you really want to loan money to the government, buy a savings bond. At least that way you’ll be paid interest.

Want a lower credit card rate? Just ask.
If you carry a balance, there’s a good chance you can lower your rate simply by phoning your credit card company and asking. “If you’ve paid the minimum balance consistently, you can be a good candidate for this,” says Squawkfox blogger Kerry Taylor. “I wrote about it on my blog and people emailed me in droves saying they did it and it worked.” On a $5,000 balance you could save $35 in interest a month, which will help you catch up on your payments and finally get out of debt.

$32,489.00
The total amount you’ll save in mortgage interest if you make one annual extra payment of $1,500 on a 25-year $300,000 fixed-rate loan at 5%.

Faux savings
Credit cards with travel rewards may tempt you with images of tropical beaches, but if you carry a balance, stick with a low-rate card. Reward cards have rates as high as 30%. If you don’t pay them off each month, you’re subsidizing someone else’s vacation.

Save $25 a day on car rentals
Tired of paying $25 or $28 a day for the loss-damage waiver when you rent a car? You can skip that fee by beefing up your existing car insurance so it extends your liability coverage to rentals. Just call your insurance company and ask for additional coverage called “Liability for Damage to Non-Owned Automobile.” It covers cars rented in both Canada and the U.S., and it only costs around $35 to $50 per year. According to insurance agent Margot Bai, you’ll pay a lower deductible than you would have if you didn’t have the additional coverage. As long as you rent cars for three or more days a year, you’ll come out ahead.

Save on car insurance
Are you paying too much for your car insurance? Licensed insurance agent Margot Bai says you have a good chance of negotiating lower rates simply by giving your agent a call. “If you have an older vehicle, for example, it may be worth dropping collision coverage for at-fault accidents. It may also be worthwhile to raise your insurance deductible to reduce premiums.”

While you’re on the phone, ask your agent what would happen to your premiums if you got in accident. Make a note and stick it in your file, and you’ll have a better idea of when it’s worth making a claim in the future. If it’s too late and you’ve already had an accident, you can call the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s consumer information centres anonymously and they can give you a general idea of what types of claims trigger big premium hikes (see ibc.ca for a list of local offices).

Don’t miss these tax savings
Pension splitting: You may be able to transfer up to 50% of your pension benefits to a lower-earning spouse or common law partner. “Seniors should be sure to use the lucrative pension income splitting opportunities,” says author and tax expert Evelyn Jacks.

Capital losses: Don’t forget to claim your capital losses on investments, even if you don’t have gains, says Jacks. They can offset capital gains from the three prior years and generate a refund on previously-paid taxes.

Medical rebates: Eligible medical expenses can include travel insurance, eye glasses and contact lenses. Disabled taxpayers can often claim modifications to a home or van.

The cost of optimism
Are your rose-tinted glasses costing you money? Research shows that investors are almost universally overly optimistic about the returns they’ll get. We typically expect our portfolios to return 1 or 2 percentage points more than the markets, even though most investors get less than market returns. We also tend to overstate our own past gains by an average of 3.4 percentage points. While it’s nice to be positive, in his book What Investors Really Want, behavioural finance expert Meir Statman says that brokers and advisers can promote such unrealistic optimism because people with an inflated sense of what they can make on the markets tend to trade more frequently. This causes people to rack up costly trading fees that can make their returns even worse.

Stop putting your banker’s kids through college
Why pay banking fees when there’s an increasing number of online banks offering fee-free banking bliss? President’s Choice Financial offers unlimited transactions and cheque-writing, access to CIBC bank machines and they even pay interest (though not much). ING Direct now offers a similar deal with its Thrive checking account.

Protection racket
Don’t even think about getting balance protection insurance on your credit card. With this insurance, you pay a monthly fee (typically about $1 per $100 of your average daily balance) and in return, your card issuer promises to help you pay down your credit card balance if you lose your job, become disabled or you are diagnosed with a critical illness.

Unfortunately, as MoneySense reader Sherry Blakelock discovered, you don’t get much help when you really need it. She says her brother had balance protection insurance on his card, so when he ended up in hospital, she called his credit card company for help. But all they would do was cover his minimum monthly payment amount of just $20.45. Not a great return on insurance that cost him almost $10 a month.

Save $1,000 on your mortgage
If you have a variable rate mortgage, find out how often the interest is compounded. “The more often it’s compounded, the more you pay,” says mortgage broker Kim Gibbons. If the mortgage interest is compounded semi-annually instead of biweekly on a $350,000 mortgage at 5%, you’ll save more than $1,000 in five years.

Read the rest of the series here:

Cut your work related expenses
Ten ways to trim your household spending
Six ways to save a bundle on your next getaway
Luxury goods for less
Save money on kids’ expenses
Slash your food costs now
Save $750 a month

Here’s the problem, though. For every one of those stunningly landscaped properties, there are a dozen homes where the yard either looks like a dried-up, patchy piece of semi-arid desert, or an unkempt, weed-choked jungle. The difference, in many cases, is less a matter of how much money homeowners put into their landscaping, and more a reflection of whether their tolerance for manual labour matches their ambition. All gardens require a certain amount of care and tending, and if your dreams exceed your green thumb’s grasp, you could end up spending a lot of money on a garden that doesn’t look good for very long.

The good news? Some designs require a lot less effort than others, while still delivering the kind of visual appeal that can punch up the value of your home. Even better, if you plan carefully and are at all handy, your impressive new landscaping doesn’t have to break the bank.

What are you getting into?
“Installing a garden that fits with your lifestyle is absolutely critical,” says residential garden designer Connie Cadotte, founder of Toronto-based Garden Retreats Inc. “People have all these ideas about what they’d like in a garden, but they don’t stop to think about who is going to be doing the actual gardening. It’s like joining a gym, and then discovering you don’t have the time, energy or inclination to exercise. So be honest with yourself at the outset. How much work are you creating? And are you going to do all that work? Because the days of parents getting their kids to help with the garden seem to be long over.”

Fluffing for the sale
If your goal is simply to “fluff” your property for sale, don’t overdo it. Simple pot planters might be the way to go. “The view from the street is what sells the house, so concentrate on that,” says Calgary-based garden consultant and writer Donna Balzer. “Two pots on the front step is the ultimate landscaping cliché, and yet it can be very effective. You can even make an architectural statement, say, by purchasing Spanish-style pots to go with your Spanish-style house. But don’t cheap out. If you get small, 12-inch pots, they’ll dry out almost immediately, and your plants will turn to dust and blow away.”

Work with what you have
A lot can be done to improve the look of your property simply by cleaning up the existing landscaping. “Gardens in older neighbourhoods usually contain junipers, and if they’ve been neglected at all they’ve gotten way out of hand and look quite ugly,” says Edel Schmidt, president of Mississauga’s Cloverleaf Garden Club. “But if you trim them back bonsai-style it airs them out, reveals their bark, and suddenly they look like completely different plants, very nice and interesting.” Same thing with most shrubs and lilacs. Prune them back if they’ve spread out of control. Perennials may also need to be replaced if they’ve gone to seed.

Me or my contractor?
But what if you’re starting from scratch, or looking to completely redesign an existing landscape? The easiest solution is to hire a design-build landscaping firm to come in and handle the project from start to finish. The obvious downside, however, is the cost. It’s become fashionable in some of the ritzier neighbourhoods to invest up to 10% of the value of the property—in some cases $100,000 or more—on landscaping. “Frankly, that’s too much,” says Balzer. “You can do a lot for $20,000, even if you’re contracting the entire project out.”

If you’re willing to take on the project management yourself, you can trim the cost down to just $10,000, and if you’re doing everything yourself—from the design to the purchasing to the installation—then $5,000 is a reasonable amount to spend.

There are other reasons, besides cost, to take a more active role in the installation of your garden. Because landscape companies are motivated by profit, they may not have your best interests at heart. “Don’t just accept what the designers want to give you,” says Balzer. “They’re often overstocked with materials, say they have a bunch of shrubs left over from another job that they want to get rid of, and so they try to foist them on you whether they’re suitable or not.”

Adds Schmidt: “Landscapers usually have no interest in working with what you already have, they just want to rip everything out and sell you all new stuff at horrendous prices. Also, because they make money off the plants themselves, they plant everything too close together, and you end up having to take half of them out a couple years later.”

Handling hardscape
That said, there are aspects of a garden installation you really can’t, or shouldn’t, attempt to undertake by yourself—namely, the so-called hardscape, or non-organic design elements of your garden, such as retaining walls, steps, pathways, boulders, bridges and water features like ponds or fountains.

“Hardscape should be the first thing you plan,” says Cadotte. “You can’t easily do it yourself, because the materials are difficult to work with, and there are often drainage, grading, zoning and building permit issues to contend with.”

While labour is going to be costly when dealing with hardscape, however, there is a lot of price flexibility on the materials side. “Look at your budget, and decide if you can afford to spend $60 per square foot on natural flagstone, or whether you want to substitute synthetic Unilock at $20 per square foot,” says Cadotte. “There are a lot of man-made materials that look great, are extremely durable, and mimic natural materials at a fraction of the cost.”

Research before you dig
If you decide to handle the design and planting yourself, the first step should be to undertake some basic research. “Time spent in planning and research will pay off in money saved,” says Veronica Callinen, president of Toronto’s East York Garden Club. “Go to the library and look through some books and magazines. Join a garden club or horticultural society. Watch Home and Garden TV, which can be quite good for getting ideas. With a little knowledge you can prevent a lot of mistakes, like planting a particular variety of rose that won’t grow in your climate or conditions. When you do that you might as well wad up your money and throw it away.”

Once you’ve done some research and have an idea of the kind of landscaping that appeals to your taste, consider calling in a trained professional. “Every city has garden coaches and consultants, and they don’t have to cost an arm and a leg,” notes Balzer, who charges $120 per hour for consultations. “A good consultant can size up the potential of your property, look at the pages you’ve earmarked in gardening magazines, and come up with some ideas that will suit your taste and budget.” She says word of mouth is the best way to find reputable people. “Ask around. You can even knock on the door of someone whose garden you admire and see if they used a consultant.”

Measure twice, plant once
Draw up a plan. Plot your plot. Figure out where everything’s going to go before you hit the garden centres. “You need to plan every single square foot,” says Cadotte. “That doesn’t mean you have to undertake everything at once. You can install the garden over time, in stages. But you need to work from a plan. If you just start digging holes and dropping in trees, shrubs and flower beds, you’re going to end up ripping a lot of it back out later, and that’s costly in time, money and effort.”

Laying the groundwork
What kind of soil do you have? If you don’t know, you’d better find out—before planting. “If you’re in an old house, your soil’s probably pretty good, because it’s been built up over the decades,” says Balzer. “But if you’re in a new house, you’re probably dealing with four inches of not-very-good soil, and that’s not enough for most plantings.” Shrubs, she says, require a good eight-to-10 inches of good quality soil, and trees even more. “If you don’t prep the soil right, you spend a fortune on plants at the garden shop, and then next year you’re back buying them all over again because they didn’t take. And eventually you have to rip everything out and start from scratch with better soil.”

The bones in the yard
After you’ve prepped the soil, decide where you’re going to plant the major elements of your garden design: the trees, shrubs and hedges. “They’re the bones of the garden,” says Cadotte, “the things that are going to stay in place for years or decades. You want to place them carefully, because they’re not going to be easy to move, or remove, later, and if they’re planted too close together they’ll end up crowding each other as they grow.”

Speaking of trees, one of the biggest mistakes home gardeners make is buying them too big. “You don’t have to go and buy the biggest tree you can find,” says Balzer. “When you buy a tree with a four-inch diameter trunk, up to 90% of the roots have been cut off, and when you plant them they go into root shock. The end result is that those trees either die, or they don’t grow for the first couple years, as they get acclimatized to their new surroundings. Smaller trees, even trees planted from seeds, will often overtake larger trees within two or three years of planting.”

Minimizing maintenance
If your goal is to minimize the amount of time you’re going to be spending in the garden, perennials, rather than annuals, are the way to go when it comes to planting flowers. You can also largely do away with the weekly ritual of mowing the lawn by, well, largely doing away with the lawn. “With small properties in particular, many homeowners have opted to replaced grass entirely with bark mulch,” says Balzer. “It’s largely maintenance free, and it makes a great-looking setting for a landscape of trees, shrubs and flower beds.”

Thymes, clovers and other forms of ground cover can make for a great grass alternative. “Because they don’t grow tall, they don’t require mowing,” says Callinen. “And in the case of clovers, they attract all those good pollinating insects that are a vital part of our ecosystem.”

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